Everything we know about Muhammad's life comes from Muslim historiography.

The Prophet works for Abu Talib in the caravan business, giving him the opportunity to travel beyond Arabia.

Travel gives the Prophet contact with some of the Christian and Jewish communities that exist in Arabia; in this way he becomes familiar with the notion of scripture and the belief in one God.

Despite this contact, tradition specifies that Muhammad never learned to read or write.

As a child, however, he was sent to the desert for five years to learn the Bedouin ways that were slowly being forgotten in Mecca.

Muhammad marries a rich widow when he is twenty-five years old; although he manages her affairs, he occasionally goes off by himself into the mountains that surround Mecca.

On one of these occasions, Muslim belief holds that the angel Gabriel appeared to Muhammad and told him to recite aloud.

When Muhammad asks what he should say, the angel recites for him verses that will later constitute part of the Quran, which means literally "the recitation."

Muslims believe that Muhammad continued to receive revelations from God throughout his life, sometimes through the angel Gabriel and at other times in dreams and visions directly from God.

For a while, Muhammad tells only his wife about his experiences, but in 613 he acknowledges them openly and begins to promote a new social and spiritual order that will be based on them.